One of the biggest revelations in the energy and environment sphere: SPN Associate Member, the Beacon Hill Institute “requested $38,825…to weaken or roll back a five-year effort by states in the region to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” explained The Guardian. “The institute said it would carry out research into the economic impact of the cap-and-trade system operating in nine states known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.”

“BHI appeared to have already arrived at its conclusions in advance, admitting from the outset that the aim of the research was to arm opponents of cap-and-trade with data for their arguments, and to weaken or destroy the initiative.”

“The stated research goals, as written, were inconsistent with Suffolk University's mission,” Greg Gatlin, the university's vice-president for marketing and communications, wrote in an email to The Guardian. “The Beacon Hill Institute's grant proposal did not go through the university's approval process. The university would not have authorized this grant proposal as written.”

Searle, Monsanto, “The Don”: Oh My

The Guardian's piece is based on funding proposals from SPN member organizations handed to the Searle Freedom Trust, “a private foundation that in 2011 donated almost $15m to largely rightwing causes,” the paper explains.

“The trust, founded in 1998, draws on the family fortune of the late Dan Searle of the GD Searle & Company empire – now part of Pfizer – which created NutraSweet,” wrote The Guardian. “The trust is a major donor to such mainstays of the American right and the Tea Parties as Americans for Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), the Heartland Institute and the State Policy Network itself.”

The Guardian's piece notes that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama who has been dubbed “Mayor 1%” by Chicago activists and in a recent book by Kari Lyderson — was selected by SPN member the Illinois Policy Institute as the ideal spokesman for slashing pensions of public sector workers in Illinois.

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE